Interview with Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

Climate change requires us to move away from traditional thinking of sovereign states and boundaries, to cross-border cooperation and thinking of the commons and equitable sharing of ecological or carbon space.

The path of economic growth that started with the industrial revolution in Europe has, after about 200 years, left humanity trapped in the imbroglio of climate change. To address the global warming and related changes in the earth

Policy responses to climate change include mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to the expected changes in the earth

Indian environmentalism has been an important, even defining, element of a distinctly Southern brand of environmentalism. Largely rooted in local struggles over access to and control over resources, a stylized Southern environmentalism is closely connected to concerns over social justice and driven by subalterns rather rather than professionals?

Health must no longer be considered as a separate, stand-alone entity. Sustainable improvement in health status can occur only in conjunction with overall development in the community. At the same time health is a prerequisite for economic and social development. In our vision, are the one billion plus an asset to be fostered or a liability to be tolerated?

India is truly an amazing place: it is both a graveyard of concepts that flourish happily elsewhere, and a breeding ground for those that survive only in our conditions. Terms such as class, status, nation state, and community have already undergone significant modifications in the Indian setting.

The green revolution of the sixties helped to instil self-confidence in our agricultural capability and also to purchase time in relation to achieving a balance between population growth and food production.

Since the Bengal Famine of 1943, the nation has been clamouring for self-sufficiency in foodgrain production. The Swaraj Government has been promising to achieve this goal but has failed so far.

A question frequently asked today is whether planning has any relevance in a world of economic liberalization and the market economy.

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